Rana Safvi

Rana Safvi

If Amir Khusrau captured Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s teachings in his songs and poetry, Amir Sijzi did the same in the famous compilation titled Fawa’id-al-Fu’ad, which contains the literary discourses of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. Unlike Amir Khusrau who became his disciple when he was around eight years old, Amir Sijzi became Auliya’s disciple quite late in life, when he was already an established poet and called the Saadi-e-Hind....

Mehmal Sarfraz

Mehmal Sarfraz

There is no one like Asma Jahangir but her legacy will continue to live on through her work, through the institutions she built - such as the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the AGHS Legal Aid Cell - through the countless women she empowered, through those she inspired, through each and every rights worker and through her family and friends. Asma ji, we will miss you. Rest in power!...

BEST OF BEFORE ARTICLES

Akbar Ahmed

Akbar Ahmed

Like other
European converts, Pedersen can be thought of as a living bridge between Islam
and Europe. He remains proud of his Danish identity and feels it is fully
compatible with Islam, “for me, being a Dane and being a Muslim is just
expressing Islam in a Danish way of living.” As a Dane, Pedersen feels
particularly connected to his Viking roots. He showed us the artwork of his
daughter, who painted a calligraphy of the Arabic Bismillah, ar-Rahman,
ar-Rahim in the shape of a Viking ship....

The Muslim Vibe

It is narrated
that during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), there was
a solar eclipse on the day that one of his sons died. Some people suggested
that the sun eclipsed because of the young child’s death and the Prophet’s
sadness on that day. However, the Holy Prophet corrected this for the people
and said: “The sun and the moon are two signs among the signs of Allah. They do
not eclipse because of someone’s death or life. So when you see them, invoke
Allah and pray till the eclipse is clear.”....

Gilgamesh Nabeel

Gilgamesh Nabeel

Atheism is not
illegal in Egypt or Iraq, but officials often level blasphemy or other charges
against atheists in those countries. Those rejecting the faith face the death
sentence in Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen,
Somalia, Sudan and Mauritania.

Moin Qazi, New Age Islam

Moin Qazi, New Age Islam

Several
scholastic understandings of divorce within Islam do not support the notion of
triple talaq in its current form and it is banned or not practiced in many
Muslim countries, including Algeria, Tunisia, Malaysia, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Indonesia and Bangladesh. In Islam,
marriage is a solemn contract (Meesaaqan Ghaleeza) and both parties have equal
rights to revoke this covenant in accordance with Quranic procedure if the
other party breaches it….

Ikram Ahmed, New Age Islam

Ikram Ahmed, New Age Islam

He recites plenty of verses from the Holy Quran, which could be scientific. The verses are then compared to myriad scientific theories from several disciplines for example: Medicine, Astronomy, Geology etc. But in the first place, why does Zakir Naik require scientific evidence to prove that Quran is a book of God or that it was never fabricated or altered for centuries? Does faith require scientific validity? Zakir Naik and his acolytes should read Karl Popper’s Science as Falsification. It is a bizarre idea to use scientific principle to justify religion.…..

Sean Illing

Ali A. Rizvi

Neither side
was making that distinction. On the left, people were saying that if you have
any criticism against Islam, then you were a bigot against all Muslims. On the
right, it was like, there are a lot of problematic things in Islamic scripture,
so everyone who is Muslim must be banned, or profiled, or demonized. Both sides
weren't making that distinction between challenging ideas, which has
historically moved societies forward, and demonizing human beings, which only
rip societies apart....

Tahir Mahmood

Tahir Mahmood

Coming to the
final order of the court based on the majority view, one may ask what will be
the effect of “setting aside” the practice of triple Talaq? Will it be a
nullity and effect no divorce at all, or will it effect a single Talaq with a
cooling off period of about three months during which the man can revoke it
and, failing that, the parties can directly remarry (without the so-called
Halala)? A clue is found in Kurian Joseph’s judgment which asserts that the
decisive law in India is as set out in Shamim Ara to the effect that a Talaq to
be legally recognised must have been pronounced in a step-by-step compliance
with the true Islamic procedure....

Charlie Winter and Devorah Margolin

Charlie Winter

Up until
recently, the message conveyed to women in the Islamic State’s Arabic- and
English-language propaganda was threefold: first, female supporters were told
to stay at home and maintain a sedentary and reclusive lifestyle; second, they
were advised to support the Islamic State through money and words, rather than
deeds; and, third, they were instructed to have as many children as their
bodies would permit and be open to remarriage if their husband was killed on
the battlefield....

Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam

Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam

Islamic Shariat was
influenced by the practical need to continue with the well-established laws in
the conquered lands. The Ahadith were
compiled in the 9th century by At-Tirmidhi (Uzbek died 892), Imam Bukhari –
(Uzbek died 870), Abu-Dawud (Persian died 889), Ibn Majah (Persian died 887),
Al-Nasai (Persian died 915), Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (Persian died 875), Ibn
Hanbal (Arab died 855). The books of the first six compilers form part of the
Kutub Al-Sittah or the six books. The fact that all the six major compilers
were contemporaries in the era of Islam’s Golden period under the Abbasid
dynasty could be because the compilation may have been a political project to
bend Islam to the political compulsions of the Caliph. The Ahadith contradict
the Quran on every subject and if these alleged sayings of the Prophet (pbuh)
are authentic, then it would appear that the Prophet spent all his life
preaching against the message of the Quran!

Mustafa Akyol

Mustafa Akyol

Islam, in other
words, is not the exceptional religion that both its believers and critics
often think it is. It is rather a branch of the old Abrahamic tree and is going
through the challenges that other branches have gone through. Islam also has
the seeds of reform within itself. On Shariah, here is a silver lining: Some
medieval Islamic scholars, like Imam Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi of Granada, looked
beyond the letter of the law and mapped out the divine “intentions” behind
Shariah. ....

Belinda F. Espiritu, New Age Islam

Belinda F. Espiritu, New Age Islam

“They tend to put more stress on looking inward
than outward, on contemplation over action, spiritual exercise and development
of the self over dry legalism, and cultivation of the soul over social, worldly
interaction with people”. Sufis aim to attain a direct knowledge of God and a
personal experience of the Divine. As the Sufis believe that the heart is the
centre of spirituality, it is the heart that needs to be activated by turning
to the practice of meditation.....

Rashid Samnakay, New Age Islam

It is suggested
to the scholars that sing song accompanied with string and percussion
instruments to pass their message effectively will not go astray, as these are
allowed in religion. After all the Rusul Daood Alaihis Salaam wrote and
sang psalms accompanied by harp and Sulaiman Alaihis Salaam propagated
song called Song of Solomon! Perhaps those apostles knew better that the
language of music touches the heart and soul of mankind. The modern scholars
should emulate these stances to lure the young ones....

Dr. Mohamed Chtatou

Dr. Mohamed Chtatou

All in all, it appears that none of the Asian
countries considered in this work, with the possible exception or Pakistan, are
in danger of being thrown into turmoil and instability due to an Islamic
revolution. There are ways in which the
role of Islam may affect the stability of the some of these states, however;
such as incorporating Islamic political parties in the new dispensation in
Indonesia or ensuring the confidence and safety of non-Muslim minorities in
Malaysia and Indonesia. In India and
Philippines, non-Muslim majorities must work to ensure the confidence and
safety of the minority Muslim community....

Faisal Devji

Faisal Devji

There is also a
new movement of atheists in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which
takes the form of secret societies. A 2012 WIN/Gallup International poll showed
that 5 percent of Saudis identified as atheists — more than in the United
States — while 19 percent did not consider themselves religious, in a country
that punishes unbelief with death. An average of 22 percent expressed doubts
about religion elsewhere in the Middle East....

Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam

Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam

Science informs us that the world and time have a
beginning. Science also informs us that what originates in time and at a point
in time has a cause. Nothing happens by itself. There must be a cause therefore
for the creation of the universe and this cause we call the Creator. Unless
there is a cause for the creation of the Creator of this Universe, the Creator
is the First Principle we call God. Every being and thing has a cause and every
cause has its cause and if we go back in this series which cannot be infinite,
we end at a cause that has no cause which is God who is uncaused and the cause
of creation. If the world itself was uncaused, then the world itself would have
been the first principle, and the atheists would have been right in rejecting
the notion of a God who is among other things the Creator….